T.E.A.M. Decency

October 25th-November 1st is National White Ribbon Week

Karmel Larson — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 02:15:30 +0000

Here are ideas from www.moralityinmedia.org to support National White Ribbon Week:

Morality in Media asks every American concerned about the flood tide of pornography pouring into our nation’s communities, homes, and children’s minds to participate in this year’s White Ribbon Against Pornography (WRAP) Week, which runs from Sunday, October 25, through Sunday, November 1, 2009, and whenever possible to take action against pornography throughout the year.

Here are Action Steps you can take during WRAP Week and throughout the year:

Display White Ribbons…Wear a WRAP lapel pin…Put a WRAP magnet on your car!To order WRAP enamel lapel pins and WRAP car magnets, go online to www.wrapfamily.com To order plastic lapel ribbons [30 cents each, with minimum order of 100] contact: The Burbridge Foundation, 3701 NW 42, Oklahoma City, OK 73112 Tel: (405) 946-3698 Email: BobBurLane@aol.com

Make copies of the attached What you can do to combat pornography during WRAP Week and throughout the year flyer and distribute to members of your church or other sympathetic religious/community organization (can be folded as a bulletin insert) and to the general public (e.g., in front of a store that sells pornography or at a shopping mall). It’s an inexpensive way to get the word out! MSWORD and PDF

Letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder available in the MSWORD and PDF format.

Ask your Governor, State Legislature, Mayor, or City Council to issue a Proclamation in conjunction with the White Ribbon Against Pornography Campaign. A model Proclamation, which you can photocopy and give to others, is available in the MSWORD and PDF format.

Ask your state prosecutor to enforce state obscenity laws. A model request letter, which you can photocopy and give to others, is available in MSWord and PDF formats. If you don’t know who your state prosecutor is, contact your local police department.

Alaska, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont and W. Virginia do not have a statewide obscenity law, and Montana and S. Dakota have unworkable laws. These states need new obscenity laws. [Maine, New Mexico and S. Dakota allow local control of obscenity.] In Oregon and Hawaii, state courts invalidated [OR] or gutted [HA] obscenity laws. These states need to amend their state constitutions. Morality in Media’s legal department can help draft a new or amended state obscenity law or, if the State Supreme Court has invalidated the law, an amendment to a state constitution.

Tell others about the www.ObscenityCrimes.org website. Use the text at this link to promote ObscenityCrimes.org as a model for a letter to family, friends, church or other organization members or to the editor of your local newspaper. Complaints about Internet pornography submitted to the website are forwarded to the Justice Department and to the U.S. Attorney in each federal district where a complaint originated. Available in MSWord and PDF formats.

Create a Family Decency Standard

Karmel Larson — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:42:15 +0000

Ideas on how to create a Family Decency Standard from Communities For Decency Website:

Educate Your Family

In this world of eroding values, who will step up to define an acceptable standard of decency?

Creating a Family Decency Standard

Have you ever considered a movie’s rating in making a decision whether or not to see it, only to be shocked or feel betrayed by what is contained? Ratings generated by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), gaming and music labels, TV ratings, and the Supreme Court’s “Miller Test” all attempt to define what is and what is not decent. Certainly any meaningful endeavor to protect individuals and families from indecent entertainment must begin with a working definition of what is and what is not decent, but can we depend on the current rating systems to protect our families ?

Unfortunately, in the present environment we simply cannot rely on these inadequate gauges of appropriateness. In this world of eroding values, who will step up to define an acceptable standard of decency? Recent research done on behalf of Communities for Decency suggests decency standards must originate in families and communities.

Creating a family decency standard is one way to empower individuals to make informed entertainment choices. The following method of discussing decency standards works well for adults and children ages 11 and older.

Preparatory Steps:

Familiarize yourself with the MPAA rating system and other public sources on decency standards.

Set up two one-hour family meetings to discuss family decency standards.

Obtain movie reviews on several current movies from relaible websites such as pluggedinonline.com or gradingthemovies.com. Note: Descriptions of movie content are factual and detailed. CFD encourages parents to use these websites.

Ground Rules and Intent

Parents should act primarily as facilitators whose job will be to listen and learn what decency means in their family and to carefully guide the discussion toward the desired end.

All topics related to entertainment and what the family views are open for discussion.

Meeting One: Creating a Meaningful Framework

Review the ground rules and intent of the session.

Review the MPAA rating system and other definitions of decency.

Allow family members to comment on how these frameworks help or do not help your family. For instance, is a PG or PG-13 movies rating an adequate measure of appropriateness for your family?

Brainstorm a list of what is sacred to your family. Examples may include God, our bodies, marriage, and human life.

Translate your list of what is sacred into a watch list of ways in which offensive content is woven into entertainment. This list may include violence or taking human life, lifestyles with no respect for a moral code, use of profanity-laden dialogue, portrayals of inappropriate sexual relationships–even if those portrayals do not include explicit images.

Meeting Two: Creating a Family Standard of Decency

Review the framework notes from the first meeting. Discuss other sources of information on movie content such as current movie reviews from pluggedinonline.com or gradingthemovies.com.

Explore point by point the content from current movie reviews. Do these movies violate what is sacred in your family? Do they fit your framework of what is decent or indecent? Should your family view these movies? Movie reviews may contain explicit information generating a mature but necessary family discussion.

Finalize a list of more specific definitions of what is and is not appropriate content for your family. For example: We will not watch explicit images (violent or sexual) that offend our family’s definition of what is sacred. We will not watch thematic or interpretive indecency that presents “evil as good” and “good as evil.” We will not watch movies with profanity or actions that run contrary to or offend our sense of what is sacred.

Examine your library of DVDs, movies, and other forms of home entertainment. Agree to discard entertainment that violates your new family decency standard.

Commit your family to using pluggedinonline.com or gradingthemovies.com, or like information sources for reviewing content prior to viewing or purchasing home entertainment.

What One Family Can Do

Hold Family Councils and decide what our media standards are going to be.

Spend enough quality time with our children so that we are consistently the main influence in their lives, not their friends or the media.

Make good media choices ourselves. Set a good example.

Limit the time of TV watching or video games or Internet use each day.

Use internet filters and TV programming locks.

Place TVs and computers in a much-used room of the home.

Watch appropriate media with our children and discuss with them how to make choices that will uplift and build rather than degrade and destroy.

Call Calvin Klein

Karmel Larson — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:24:41 +0000

From Bill Johnson, President of American Decency Association.

Calvin Klein is not only using group sex on billboards but has a pornographic clip with group sex on its website.

I am sorry to offend you with this but, did you think the day would come when a non-porn company would use pornographic advertisement to sell products? The ground is moving fast from under us. We can still make a difference.

Will you take time to call Calvin Klein? 866.513.0513. Please get those in your organization and in your email contacts to call. …”

You could also

write letters to Calvin Klein
contact local retailers who carry the Calvin Klein brand and suggest they no longer support a line of clothing that publicly displays and uses pornography for advertising.
leave comments on this post with additional ideas on how to make our voices heard in opposition to this outrageous public display

Stand Up For Decency

Karmel Larson — Fri, 01 May 2009 15:51:10 +0000

“Oh how we need in this day and time men and women who will stand up for decency and truth and honesty and virtue and law and order and all of the other good qualities on which our society is founded.

Now, I want to say to you, and I say it with a plea in my heart-get involved! Get involved on the side of righteousness and truth and decency.

God bless you to speak up for truth and decency.” -GB Hinckley

Thanks you for visiting TEAM Decency

Karmel Larson — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 04:32:34 +0000

This website was created to share decency resources in the areas of

TREATMENT

EDUCATION

ACTIVISM

MONITORING

and to share current events, updates & opportunities to “Stand For Decency”.